Last time I wrote about these devices, I had two of them. One had a hard disk, one did not.

The one without a hard disk had a problem where it would boot and then switch off after about 10 seconds. This went away when I fiddled with it.

As soon as that one fixed itself, the other one with the hard disk developed exactly the same problem. It would boot, and then about 10 seconds later it would switch off. I fiddled with it the same way, but it did not fix it.

But then I fiddled some more and the problem went away. I have no idea what I did that could have fixed it. Maybe opening the memory case? Maybe loosening the screws under the front case and then tightening them again? Maybe cursing at it vigorously? I don't know.

But now I have two netbooks, both working properly. I would like to sell one off, but given the turn-off problem, I am not morally comfortable selling them to someone else in case they develop the problem again.

So I will keep them and experiment with them. I managed to install VirtualBox on the one with a hard disk, and then put Windows XP inside VirtualBox. It's pretty funny, but it was just an exercise to see if it could be done. It can.